Sasha Cohen, seen here in 2010, has moved from the ice to the college classroom. / Eileen Blass, USA TODAY

by Kelly Whiteside, USA TODAY Sports

by Kelly Whiteside, USA TODAY Sports

OMAHA â?? Sasha Cohen is one of the more memorable figure skaters in U.S. history. Like America's other ice princesses â?? Dorothy, Peggy, Michelle â?? she was simply known as Sasha.

Except now she's not.

Meet Alex Cohen, Columbia University sophomore.

On campus, she's rarely recognized as the skater who won the silver medal at the 2006 Olympics. "A couple of professors have recognized me and a few students but generally, no," Cohen said Saturday. "My legal name is Alexandra and I go by Alex, so it's pretty low key."

She's also thought about taking up a new sport about as far removed from the kiss and cry as a sport can get.

Meet Alex Cohen, rugby player?

"I was trying but people convinced me not to join the rugby team," she said. "They were like, 'You're going to die.' Conceptually I think it's a good idea, but we'll see. They are big girls."

And Cohen is 5-2 and maybe a 100 pounds with boots on.

"One day I want to play," she said. "I just feel like my ear will be ripped off and my nose will be broken and three teeth gone and I would be like, 'Is that really such a good idea?'"

This semester, Cohen is taking Foundations of Political Economy, Contemporary Islamic Civilization and Western Contemporary Civilization, a year-long class that covers works from Plato to Freud. "We're on Kant right now," Cohen said.

For her trip to Omaha for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, her first nationals as a spectator, she packed all her school books, as well as a pair of her new line of skates. Cohen just launched a collection (under the Klingbeil brand) of three different skates, one which provides an affordable option for recreational skaters. She also continues to dabble in the fashion world and skate on the tour circuit.

Though she lives downtown, she escapes New York City's frenzy when she arrives on campus at 116th and Broadway. "The campus is gorgeous," she said. "I love when you're sitting on the steps at Low Library. It's an escape from the city -- the city is so high-paced, high fashion, high everything."

At Columbia, her world slows down, when she can sit in a classroom, read Kant and just be Alex.